LIONEL RACING PROVIDES RARE OPPORTUNITY FOR NORTH TEXAS STUDENTS

More Than 5,000 Students From 10 DFW Elementary Schools To Compete In Lionel Racing's 'Design A Die-Cast' Week-Long Competition Beginning Monday

Winning Paint Scheme Design Will Be Produced By Lionel Racing For National Distribution And Available At Major Retailers

FORT WORTH, Texas (February 6, 2017) - Lionel Racing is providing more than 5,000 Dallas/Fort Worth elementary school students with an extraordinary opportunity to produce a paint scheme for a NASCAR Cup Series stock car that will join the company's NASCAR die-cast line and be available at national retailers.

Lionel Racing, the Official Die-Cast of NASCAR, will begin the week-long competition today at the 10 schools that are taking part in Texas Motor Speedway's Speeding To Read program for kindergarten through fifth-grade students. The schools participating, which represent five of the top 20 largest districts in the Metroplex, are B.B. Owen (Lewisville ISD), Brent (Little Elm), Carroll Peak (Fort Worth), Cox (Northwest), E.P. Rayzor (Denton), Hatfield (Northwest), J.A. Hargrave (Crowley), Justin (Northwest), Nathan Adams (Dallas) and Tom C. Gooch (Dallas).

For the third consecutive year as a partner of the speedway's educational program, Lionel Racing will have students design their own paint scheme for a NASCAR Cup Series stock car. The winning designs will be reproduced on actual 1:24 scale, hood-opening, trunk-opening die-casts.

Winners will be selected in both the KG-2nd and 3rd-5th grade divisions and each will have their respective car presented to them in an acrylic case during a school assembly coinciding with April's O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 NASCAR doubleheader race week at Texas Motor Speedway. The two winners also will receive four tickets each to the O'Reilly Auto Parts 500.

The overall winning design among those two will have the distinction of having their paint scheme added to Lionel Racing's commercial NASCAR Authentics line and be available at various national retailers including Walmart, Target, Toys "R" Us, and more. Lionel Racing also will celebrate the winner at their respective school by providing every student and faculty member with that die-cast as a memento of the accomplishment.

"Over the past two years, we have seen some incredible designs submitted as part of the Speeding to Read 'Design a Die-Cast' program," said Howard Hitchcock, President of Lionel. "We are thrilled that this year for the first time, the winning design will be produced on a mass scale so fans across the country will be able to add this special die-cast to their collections."

Beginning today through Feb. 13, students will produce their NASCAR Cup Series paint scheme on a car template sheet that consists of side and overhead views of the stock car. Each school will vote on and submit their top design in grade categories K-2 and 3-5 to Texas Motor Speedway, where speedway officials and Lionel Racing will determine the winners. The designs will be judged on originality, incorporating reading and/or school elements into the design and having an orderly appearance that can be transferred to an authentic die-cast.

Lionel Racing is among the valuable partners of Texas Motor Speedway's Speeding To Read program that also includes aai Trophies and Awards of Plano, BenQ America Corporation, Domino's, NASCAR, Score A Goal in the Classroom, Speedway Children's Charities-Texas Chapter, Speedway Motorsports, Inc. Properties, Team Texas High Performance Driving School, The Speedway Club, Verizon IndyCar Series and Woolley's Frozen Custard.

About Speeding To Read: The mission of Texas Motor Speedway's Speeding To Read program is to utilize motorsports, its drivers and races to incentivize elementary school children to read more frequently and enrich their educational experience and future. Speeding To Read is an incentive-based, motorsports-themed reading program created by Texas Motor Speedway to encourage elementary school students to read more frequently during the school year. The student bodies are split into two divisions (K-2nd and 3rd-5th) with individuals, classrooms and schools competing against each other to read the most books and earn the title of Speeding To Read champion. Since Speeding To Read began with a one-school pilot program in 2011-12, the program has reached 43 schools and more than 23,000 students that have combined to read more than three million books.For more information on the program, visit www.speedingtoread.com.

About Lionel Racing: A division of the iconic Lionel Trains company, Lionel Racing is The Official Die-Cast of NASCAR and the market leader in the design, promotion and distribution of licensed die-cast race cars. Based in Concord, N.C., Lionel Racing has the pulse of the motorsports community and is committed to giving fans the very best in die-cast collectibles. For more information, visit www.lionelracing.com.